ONE NATION, RISIBLE :

George Bush...or is it Orwell?: 1984 is not a how-to manual (Daniel Kurtzman, AlterNet.org)

As President Bush wages his war against terrorism and moves to create a huge homeland security apparatus, he appears to be borrowing heavily, if not ripping off ideas outright, from George Orwell. The work in question is 1984, the prophetic novel about a government that controls the masses by spreading propaganda, cracking down on subversive thought and altering history to suit its needs. It was intended to be read as a warning about the evils of totalitarianism, not a how-to manual.

Granted, we're a long way from resembling the kind of authoritarian state Orwell depicted, but some of the similarities are starting to get a bit eerie.

It's all well and good to remain on our guard against encroaching government tyranny, but after seventy years of the burgeoning social welfare state it takes a truly febrile imagination to believe that the fairly minimal national security measures are an approach towards 1984. Which has done more to remove our freedom, the rise in our tax rates to nearly 50% or the TIPS program?
Posted by Orrin Judd at August 9, 2002 11:03 AM